Google and Box announce alliance to integrate cloud services

The cloud storage company had also partnered up with IBM to present Box Relay, a new workflow tool for business earlier in the week. Image Source: Flipboard

The cloud storage company Box and Google’s enterprise subdivision announced a partnership last week to add Google Docs and Google Springboard support to the Box platform. The in-app service integration will be completed in the next couple of months.

Google Cloud leader Diane Greene joined the Box CEO Aaron Levie to make the announcement at BoxWorks, the company’s official annual conference. The agreement to merge services is a decision that seeks to provide an optimized work experience for users of both platforms.

The alliance between Google and Box represents the latest step for the tech giant in its path to delve deeper into the enterprise services market. Most recently, the Alphabet subsidiary reached an agreement to purchase the API management company Apigee in a move directly aimed at large corporations with online platforms.

Cloud storage company Box also came from an eventful couple of days before the BoxWorks conference. The cloud storage company had also partnered up with IBM to present Box Relay, a new workflow tool for business earlier in the week. Aaron Levie announced at the annual keynote that all of the upcoming features would be integrated into a ‘new’ Box platform.

Users will be able to edit Google Docs documents directly from Box

Google’s partnership with Box provides both companies with the best of each other to favor users in the business sector. With the cross-platform integration, Box customers can now create, edit, and store documents from Google’s productivity suite within the app.

This means that Google Docs, Google Sheets, and Google Slides will be supported by Box seamlessly just as it does currently with the Microsoft Office suite. Users can even collaboratively edit documents as if they were in the native Google apps.

Furthermore, the recently announced alliance will also serve as a macro pilot platform to bring Google Springboard to a much broader audience.

Google Springboard is an app that allows smart searches within all Google for Work products, from the Google Docs suite to Drive, Gmail, and Calendar. Image Source: TechNow

Users with the upcoming updated version of Box will be able to search their files using Springboard, becoming members of the exclusive Early Adopters Program that Google has for companies using its smart search app.

Google and Box put rivalries aside to provide the best service

“It’s fun to work with other companies. I think that’s the huge appeal for me of Google Cloud, taking it out to every company, and partnering with all these companies and every company is so exciting. We aren’t going to build it all,” Greene said at BoxWorks last week.

The ‘new’ Box with Google Docs integration and more new features will be up and running in the next few quarters, according to Box CEO Aaron Levie.